To:V. A. KARPINSKY

Written:Written earlier than October 11, 1914Published:First published in 1929 inLenin Miscellany XI.

      Sent from Berne to Geneva.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,[1976],

      Moscow,Volume 35,

      pages156-157.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work, as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

DearKarpinsky,

Iam taking advantage of this messenger to speak openly.

Thereiseveryground for expecting that the Swiss police
and military authorities (at thefirst signalfrom the
Russian or French Ambassador, etc.) will bring us before a
military tribunal or expel us for breach of neutrality, etc.
Therefore don’t write anything openly in your letters. If
you have to communicate anything, write in chemicals (the
sign of chemicals is the date on the letter underlined).

Wehave decided to publish theattachedmanifesto,
instead of the not very readable
theses.[1]Let us know when
you get it, calling the manifesto “The Development of
Capitalism”.

Itought to be published. But we advise you to do this
only on condition that you take (areableto take) the
maximum precautions!!

Nooneshould knowwhereand by whom it was publisher!.
All rough copies should be burned!! The copies printed
should be keptonlyby some influential Swiss citizen,
deputy and so forth.

Ifthis is impossible,don’tprint it.

Ifit cannot be printed, do it on a mimeograph (also
with the greatest precautions). Reply: I have received the
development of capitalism (in so many) copies==I shall
reprint it in so many copies.

Ifit cannot be published, either in print or mimeographed,
write immediately. We shall think of something else.
Reply in as much detail as possible.

(Ifyou succeed in publishing it, send us hereby hand3/4 of the copies; we shall find somewhere to keep them.)

Iawait a reply!

Yours,Lenin

N.B.[[P.S. We shall find the money for the publication.
Only write beforehand,how muchwill be needed,
because there isverylittle money. Could not the 170 
francs from the Committee of Organisations
Abroad[2]be used for this purpose?

[1]Referenceis to the theses “The Tasks of Revolutionary
Social-Democracy in the European War”, known as “The Theses on War”, and
to the Manifesto of the C.C. of the R.S.D.L.P., “The War and Russian
Social-Democracy” (see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 15–19, 25–34).

[2]TheCommittee of Organisations Abroadwas elected at a
conference of the groups of the R.S.D.L.P. abroad in Paris in December
1911. Its composition changed several times. At the conference of
R.S.D.L.P. groups abroad held in Berne from February 27 to March 4, 1915,
N. K. Krupskaya, I. F. Armand, G. L. Shklovsky and V. M. Kasparov were
elected to the Committee. During the war the Committee was based in
Switzerland and worked under Lenin’s immediate guidance. It did much to
co-ordinate the activities of the R.S.D.L.P. sections abroad, campaigned
against the social-chauvinists, and worked for unity of the Left-wing
internationalists among the Social-Democrats of various countries.